


the way you said it

by mashaghost



Category: Neko no Ongaeshi | The Cat Returns
Genre: M/M, i'll stop flooding the tcr fandom now, i'm sorry i'm incapable of writing normal ships, it's vague tho, you could probably read some of this as platonic bc that's how i do i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28488366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mashaghost/pseuds/mashaghost
Summary: Seven different ways to say "I love you."
Relationships: Cat King/Natori
Kudos: 2





	the way you said it

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, this is utterly self-indulgent ship Fluff. Basically I mixed a ‘send me a prompt and a ship and I’ll write a 3-sentence fic’ meme and some drabble prompts from another meme and wrote a handful of very short snippets. The prompts have been left in, and the overall topic was 'how you said I love you.' Will probably make this make more sense
> 
> They were supposed to be tiny disjointed snippets but as I kept writing, they ended up kind of interwoven with each other so. that's how it goes I suppose

> **From very far away**

Claudius could _purposely_ wander into the raging river, and Natori would waste no time nor hesitation in wading in after him. It’s this, Claudius often finds himself thinking, which truly defines the unspoken relationship which exists between the two of them.

Yet, perhaps there’s something also to be said about the time he’d attempted his own Bananas Foster while Natori stood halfway across the room clutching a fire extinguisher.

> **As a thank you**

One time, he cradles Natori’s paw (sturdy, heavy clippers included) in one of his own and draws the other cat around him to stand before him instead. His tongue feels sluggish when he declares, “...It’s good you’re here, Natty.”

Natori’s smile in response strikes him as perhaps paradoxically forlorn.

> **In a way I can’t return**

“Sorry, babe, it is what it is,” Claudius is always saying, and this time is no different, accompanied by his wide grin and a roguish shrug. And Natori only smiles his rueful, mirthless smile in return, inclining his head as if the action is painful.

“I’m sorry.”

> **A whisper in the ear**

“Anything you asked for, I’d get it, just to prove it,” is whispered first.

“An eye that has never seen, then,” he murmurs back in a sleepy haze. “And I will concede.”

> **Loud, so everyone can hear**

They will arise at the most inconvenient of times, these strong, wayward feelings, and Claudius is _unruly_ at the best of times.

“You know, I wouldn’t mind spending forever with you, babe,” he says one day.

“I appreciate that, sire, but please k… keep remarks pertinent to the present conference,” is Natori’s measured but stumbling response as he resolutely avoids the gaze of their company.

> **On a sunny Tuesday afternoon, the late sunlight glowing in your hair**

Stray silver hairs are more pronounced when they glint in lazy streams of noontime sunlight, catching unwelcome attention in the same way. The king despairs. Yet it’s in the process of being placated that he notices the same dwindling in his longtime companion, and he will wordlessly reach for his hand.

> **With no space left between us**

It takes some time, but he eventually returns Home with a needle. He presents it to his confidante with a knowing but hopeful grin, and he is rewarded with a look of embarrassed surprise which swiftly turns to one of amused hesitation.

“I suppose you have me, then,” Natori is content to say, and somewhere he feels as if a great and mighty rampart has been finally surmounted.


End file.
